


Sacrifice

by velithya



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Cie'th, Gen, death spells are bullshit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-07
Updated: 2012-06-07
Packaged: 2017-11-07 03:46:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/426594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velithya/pseuds/velithya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Death.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifice

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know about anyone else, but I think Highwind is the best thing in the _world_.
> 
> Originally posted to [Fang-Lightning](http://fang-lightning.dreamwidth.org) livejournal community on 15th June 2010.

**Sacrifice**

The whine in the air rises, a sliding scale of dissonance that clouds her vision with streaks of purple. The magic is thick in the air, choking, and she can barely breathe, pressure rising as the spell closes about her.

"Fang!" Vanille screams from across the terrace, but her voice is muffled, drowned out by the shrieking in the air as more and more magic coils around her, heavy.

For a moment, as her vision darkens, spell dragging at her consciousness, she wonders if this is it, if this is how it ends-

The snap back to reality as the spell shatters around her is a bigger shock than a thundaga. She's alive, she can breathe, and she hurts so damn much she can barely keep upright.

"Fang!" Vanille calls again, this time purposeful, and then the cool tinge of a cura washes over her, and she straightens, curling her fingers around her lance.

"Thanks," she calls back, and her voice is a rasp, throat dry. She swallows, twirls her lance until it fits comfortably in her palm, and stares down the Cie'th in front of her, the one who'd tried to drag her soul into hell. "I'm gonna make you squirm," she informs it, and then there's a familiar crack in the air as Lightning darts back beside her.

The thing is stunned, magic overloading its senses and she gathers herself, leaping high into the air, lance held high. There's a moment, at the arc of her leap, where she feels like she's floating, everyone far below, and in that pause Lightning darts back in, hits it once, twice, and then she's falling, fast.

When she hits home, the thing just shatters around the points of her lance, crystal dust joining the rest of the floating motes in the air, and the last lingering effects of the spell slip away.

Vanille comes running over. "Are you all right?" she asks, but Fang just shakes her head. Vanille can cast it, is the only one among them all who can, and sometimes it's the only way past whatever they're facing. She doesn't want her know what it feels like, not ever. Not if she can help it.

"Hardly worth the effort," she says instead, and does her best to smile.


End file.
